History is full of examples of the rise and fall of once-great empires. December 1991 saw the end of the world of two superpowers with the fall of the Soviet Union. In December, “as the world watched in amazement, the Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries” (Cold War Museum). The United States was delighted because their enemy was “brought to its knees, thus ending the Cold War that had loomed over these two superpowers since the end of World War II” (Cold War Museum). The split of the Soviet Union brought about extremely large transformations in the world political and economic situation, which led to the reduction of global nuclear weapons, global economic cooperation, and the commercialization of once classified military technology. In Moscow on July 31, 1991, President Bush and Gorbashev, the leader of the Soviet Union, signed the START treaty to reduce both sides' nuclear weapons to 6,000, or a 30 percent reduction from the amount previously used. This was the first large-scale reduction of nuclear weapons in Cold War history. Following this treaty, “the dangerous category of missiles with multiple independent warheads (MIRVs) was reduced by half” (End of the Cold War). On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned from the presidency and the Soviet Union was officially dismembered. All of the first “dependent republics within the old Soviet Union proclaimed their independence, gained international recognition, and were admitted to the United Nations” (End of the Cold War). As a result of the strong working relationship between President Bush and Michael Gorbashev, as well as the relationship between Baker, the Secretary of State, and Foreign Minister Shevardnadze, the Soviet Union began to drastically reduce its military spending. This cooperation between Gorbashev and the West provoked a reaction from the Soviet military and resulted in a failed coup attempt, which ended Gorbashev's rule and led to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia, no longer the Soviet Union, was now under new leadership. Boris Yeltsin became the head of the Russian republic and continued to integrate with the Western world. Russia assumed a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and was invited to participate in the G7 gathering of the world's major economic powers, thus becoming the G8. This created a level of cooperation and communication between the two countries that did not exist during the Cold War.